Thursday, January 28, 2010

Addon Highlight:TauntMaster and ForteXorcist

I'm an addon whore. WHORE. I have four separate folders of wow, all with different UI packages/ custom designs, and each has at least 40-60 addons in each. I could go so in-depth into my addons you would think I knew the first thing about making one. So today, as my so apt-ly named shaman blog that is now almost exclusively about paladin tanking, is getting to be a chore, I thought I would start talking about something that could be called an addiction, or possibly a fetish, depending on how much you look into it.

I was recently listening to a little ol', not so known podcast(sarcasm) called "Inside Azeroth", when I discovered this nugget of tanking badassery. Known as TauntMaster, this addon makes you just that, the master of taunts. The way this addon works is thus, it provides a healbot-esqe looking unit frame indicator. Let's say I, as the tank, Initiate a pull. My bar will turn red, the traditional color of "Holy shit you bout to get smacked in the face". When a dps starts to get close to my threat, their bar will turn yellow, and when it attacks them, it will turn red. What this addon allows you to do is left/right click on that players bar to taunt off of them. If A group of mobs aggro the healer because they came up behind us or something, I can right click to AoE taunt them to me. This addon, despite this not really being it's use, has replaced grid as a group-health monitor. The other fantastic thing about this addon, is that it automatically recognizes your class, and the spells you have to use. There are pre-set bindings for my Hand of Protection and Divine Intervention, as well as both taunts.

The other addon I'd like to talk about is one many people know, ForteXorcist. This addon is kinda like a 5-in-1 addon, doing more things than you really need, but damn are those some nice things. It provides a cooldown bar, much like another addon called Coolline, but it is the spell timer that sets this addon apart in my opinion. You can track everything and anything with it. As a healer, I use it to track how many charges of earth shield my tank has, it will track the duration of buffs, like Tidal Force, and power-ups like Art of War on the paladin or redoubt. You can hide certain things, like replenishment, or avengers shield, and have certain things get bigger when they are under a certain time, all kinds on things.

These addons are fucking awesome. Addon are one my passion, I would love to be able to make them, but unfortunately I just can't be bothered to do things that other people benefit from.